Before I went to college, I thought I knew for sure that I didn't want to become a teacher. Here I am now, teaching German at an American college, and I can truly say that I love it. Teaching is challenging and though not always easy, it gives me much satisfaction. As a student in school and college, I had many good and bad teachers. I came to realize that all these teachers of different calibers can have a very important impact on students' lives. As a teacher, I try to take the good things from my good teachers, avoid the bad things, and more importantly create my own teaching persona. I do my best to adhere to these principles.

• Be fair. I think it is really important for a student to feel that the instructor is fair to all students and does not play favorites. By being fair, I also try to be strict and challenging but not unreasonable in my expectations.

• Show respect in order to be respected. The affective filter is a very important factor in foreign language learning, therefore, it is very important for me not to make fun of, or be impatient with students who mispronounce words or make mistakes. If a student has difficulties pronouncing a word, I engage the whole class in pronouncing the word in unison. Furthermore, if I expect my students to be in class on time, I always have to be there on time.

• Be accessible. By accessible I mean both a) being there for the students, and b) making the material accessible to them.
a) Many undergraduate students do not make an effort to talk to the professor outside of class. That’s why I encourage my students to come and see me during my office hours or make an appointment with me when needed. I keep in touch with my classes via email as well. Students who make C’s or lower on their tests or essays are always asked to come and see me. I think that with some students especially, a one-on-one discussion and going over their strengths and weaknesses helps a lot.
b) As far as making the material accessible to students, I think it is important to follow the “i+1” principle but still not to make things too challenging. Therefore, I use foreigner talk as needed, i.e. I use body language to convey meaning, speak more slowly, am careful with word-choice, and use exaggerated stress and intonation.

• Use an interactive, communicative-approach. We know very well that it is not enough to receive input in order to learn a foreign language. Interaction is crucial in foreign language learning. In my German classes, I try to balance student-teacher and student-student interactions. Although students hear more correct, authentic German from their instructor, they can also learn a lot from their peers. The fact that their levels of competence are closer makes students feel more comfortable to speak.

• Give corrective feedback. Though the instructor should not interrupt too much and thus discourage students, it is still very important for them to hear correct German and have their attention drawn to their mistakes. If somebody mispronounces a word, I repeat it correctly and have the student repeat it, or often the whole class repeats the word. I often use metalinguistic tools and contrastive grammar to work on my students’ mistakes. I sometimes point out things such as minimal pairs like “Nacht” vs. “nackt”, the fact that the “ch” sound in “mich” is like the English “human” or that the German “z” is like the “ts” in the English “cats” or “tse- tse fly”. When we talk about the texts, culture, or just general things, I don’t put too much weight on grammar, because I think it is much more important to get the meaning across. I usually focus specifically on grammar only when we talk about grammar. The majority of my feedback is probably corrective recast. Sometimes I also ask students to repeat themselves which oftentimes leads to self-correction without any additional clues.

• Personalize, make things relevant, keep things in context. It is always easier for students to learn and remember new things when they are linked to something familiar. Therefore, I try as much as possible to keep things in context, use examples that are relevant to the students, and in one way or another personalize the material. For example, when talking about subordinating conjunctions, after explaining the rules, I ask questions like “Warum sind Fremdsprachen wichtig?” or “Warum lernen Sie Deutsch?”

• Be dynamic, entertaining, and motivating. I think it’s really hard to teach a foreign language by sitting at your desk during the whole class period. I never sit while I teach. My moving around in the class keeps the students more on their toes and gives a certain dynamic to the class. Although I’m not there to entertain the students but to teach them German, I think teaching can be done in an entertaining way. Motivation being one of the most important factors linked to success in foreign language teaching, students need to be interested in the German language and culture. If they are motivated and interested, not only will they do well in class, but they can also benefit from the German learning experience even beyond the classroom environment. They could watch Deutsche Welle or read German newspapers on the web even after they finished taking German in school.

• Integrate technology. A very effective way to motivate students of German is to integrate technology in the curricula. Exposure to authentic and up-to-date material, allowing students to work at their own pace, and reducing peer pressure are only a few of the advantages of technology in the foreign langauge classroom. Technology not only extends the walls of the classroom by reinforcing specific grammar, vocabulary, and cultural knowledge skills, but it also creates life-long learners as students learn to navigate and comprehend target language web sites.